The invention relates to a germinating tank for germinating and softening of barley malt supported on a grating. An aerating chamber is located underneath the grating and the arrangement is particularly suitable for malt houses and breweries.
The germinating installations for malt houses and breweries generally include a perforated supporting surface, such as a grating, on which the green and moist malt, such as barley malt, is stored so that moist warm air can be passed therethrough for purposes fo softening the malt material. The air is introduced under pressure into the aerating chamber situated underneath the grating. Due to the deadweight of the softened barley the openings of the grating or perforated surface are often clogged with grain, and this clogging is even more pronounced during the turning of the barley by means of turning members and when the germinating tank is evacuated. Due to this clogging frequently contaminating residual waste material drops below the grating, in particular during removal of the barley from the germinating tank. In order to avoid the excessive formation of bacteria and for other obvious hygienic reasons it is therefore necessary to regularly remove this residual waste material. In the known brewery installations the cleaning operation is carried out by cleaning columns, which clean the germinating tank from above after the chamber has been evacuated. In order to clean the undersurface of the grating it is necessary to construct it out of a plurality of rectangular sections which can be sequentially pivoted upwardly and thereafter sprayed, brushed off and cleaned. Finally, the aerating chamber underneath the grating must be cleaned by removing the residual waste material that has fallen into it. If one considers that the conventional germinating installations have a length of from 30 to 50 meters and a width of from 4 to 5 meters, it can be readily understood that such a cleaning operation requires a man working 6 to 7 hours to complete the cleaning operation. Additionally, it should be noted that such a cleaning operation involves heavy arduous work depending on the height of the germinating chamber.